Eastman Kodak Co. has been losing its place as the top local research and development firm in the Rochester area. It's receiving fewer patents with some of its research now owned by other companies.

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Throughout the 1990s, Eastman Kodak Co. generated more patents each year than any other Rochester company, peaking in 1998 with 1,155 patents. Since then, its annual output has steadily declined. It fell behind Xerox Corp. in 2005, and has remained in second place on a list of local patent leaders.

Kodak's patent activity actually surged a little bit last year, and at the time I wondered whether that was a deliberate strategy to bolster the company's portfolio in advance of a patent sale.

Terry Taber, Kodak's chief technical officer, told me not to read too much into the increase. "We do not use ...